Edito[Edito en français]Hope
and despair.It was a sad news that reached us a few days
ago: "the Balearic Regional Government has declared
ineffective the enlargement of the Parc Natural de S'Albufera de Mallorca (Ramsar
site) that had been approved by the previous regional
government, giving way to the further encroachment of the park
by tourism facilities. Shortly before, the Balearic Parliament
had passed a law to reduce the size of two other natural
parks created by the previous government in 2001-2002. Another
wetland, the second largest in Mallorca, is also under threat with plans
to build a large hotel and spa center next to its border".
Clearly reaching a legal protection status for a site is not
the panacea and not the end in itself; that depressing news
reinforces the belief that institutional and legal
arrangements must be accompanied by the mobilization of
stakeholders and large communication and partnership efforts
to best counteract any political failing. Not easy, indeed
.

At the
same time, we celebrated World Wetlands Day, marking the date
of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February
1971, in
the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Each year, government agencies,
non-governmental organizations, and groups of citizens at all
levels of the community have taken advantage of the
opportunity to undertake actions aimed at raising public
awareness of wetland values and benefits in general and the
Ramsar Convention in particular.
Just to underscore a few of these actions around the
Mediterranean this year: on 1st February, Tour duValat opened
its doors (once a year only!) to eager visitors, all fully
equipped with binoculars and gum boots; the Moroccan
SPANA NGO scheduled a series of events (bird watching trips,
exhibits, conferences, etc) next to wetland sites and produced
an
Arabic version of the Ramsar poster. Nice! - I also hear that
a Turkish version has been prepared (?); the MedWetoffice held a successful
information/celebration event at Villa Kazouli in Athens;
and in Greece,
a community clean up and an educational visit to the major
lagoons of the Kotychi and Prokopos site were organized. Hopefully
more bird and nature lovers were gained on that day . who
may become decision makers one
day!

..[Egypt]Forging
a Working Protocol in the People's
AssemblyThe common reed Phragmites australis is
a widespread species in Lake
Burullus, which forms huge beds that
interrupt the flow of water and create internal channels
within the Lake. Although its
over-exploitation is negative, nature conservation benefits
from reed cutting can be considerable. It limits the rate of
expansion by reeds into new, open areas of lake; and within a
planned programme of rotation can produce a mosaic of beds of
different age and structure - which enhances the
(...)read
more .....[Egypt]Rehabilitation
of Roman Wells in Omayed - Solving a
Shortage of WaterIntensive
dialogue and coordination with Underground Water Sector
officials in the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Resources
have lead to the approval of the Ministry on purifying and
restoring four Roman wells, used in collecting rainwater. Land
legal owners, in which the wells are located, have pledged to
give the opportunity to all inhabitants in the area to benefit
from the wells water that has been restored. The four wells
have been selected as follows, throughout different
(...)read more
.....[Egypt]The Road to Halting Bird Hunting in ZaranikBird hunting is illegal within Zaranik. Law 102 of
protected areas provides the legal framework that regulates
all activities within the protected areas. However, quail
netting and falcon trapping are activities of the Bedouins of
North Sinai who claim traditional
ownership rights to the land. According to them, hunting,
particularly of migratory birds on an annual basis within
Zaranik Protected Area, is perceived as a proof that it is
indeed their land. Officially,
all desert lands not (...) read more .....[Morocco]Mission
FFEM sur la problèmatique de l'érosion
dunaireSur proposition du Conservatoire du Littoral, une
mission spécifique sur la problématique de l'érosion dunaire a
été conduite par MM. D. Moulis et F. Bernard les 26 et 27
janvier sur les sites de la Moulouya, le cordon dunaire de
Nador et le cap des Trois Fourches. Le rapport de cette
mission nous aidera à entamer la régénérescence des dunes et
de tenir compte de cette problématique dans les futurs
aménagements.read more
.....[Morocco]Mission
FFEM "Cellule Littoral" Conformément au document du projet, s'est
déroulé du 19 au 23 janvier une mission d'assistance technique
à la mise en place d'une « cellule littoral » au sein du SEE.
Conduite conjointement par deux experts du cabinet Ernst
&Young, d'un expert du Conservatoire du Littoral et d'un
expert juriste marocain, cette mission, au travers d'une
quinzaine de réunions aussi bien au niveau de Rabat, qu'à
Oujda, Nador et Berkane a permis de mettre la lumière sur les
différents intervenants sur le (...)read more
...

..[Egypt]Efforts
in Mobilizing Resources for Egyptian Management Plans
ImplementationWith
the completion of the management plans, it was apparent that
implementation of these plans cannot depend solely on the
MedWetCoast resources. Consequently,
MedWetCoastEgypt is
continuously working towards developing partnerships, and
securing additional funds. To date, it has succeeded in
mobilizing L.E. 11,000,000 from other relevant ministries,
through the local management committees, for management
operations of a large scope that are only possible through the
public sector, (...)read more
...

AWARENESS ACTIVITIES

..[Albania]The
MedWetCoast project
Albania celebrates the 2nd of
February! In
the frame of the wetland day the MWC project organized some
public awareness activities in Vlora
and in Tirana. In cooperation with CSDC (Civil Society
Development Center) in Vlora, from 31 January - 1 February 2004,
MWC organized some meetings with community groups, fisherman,
in Narta and Zverrneci areas, which focused their
discussion in the theme of 2nd February 2004: "From mountains
to the sea: wetland work for us". They received also copies of
a leaflet prepared (...)read
more ...

REGIONAL NETWORKING

..[RCU]Regional
Meeting on National Stategies
and Policy for Wetlands - 16 to 18 february2004 in Beirut /
LebanonThe
seminar aims at providing the participating target countries
with the necessary elements to launch and/or strengthen a
national policy making process to develop and, later,
implement national wetlands policies. read more
...

STEERING COMMITTEE

..[Albania]Minutes
of the 7th meeting of the National Steering Committee of
Albanian ProjectThe
meeting was organized in the Ministry of Environment and was
headed by Mr. LufterXhuveli, Minister of Environment and all
NSC members. At the beginning the Minister emphasized the main
events having happened since the last NSC meeting. During this
period the project has been suspended for more than 1 year due
to the donor's consideration (GEF) regarding the oil drilling
activity in Zvernec. He briefed on
the meeting's agenda and introduced the new members of the
committee. (...)read more
...

..Socio-Economics
of WetlandsThis
booklet gives a brief introduction to the social and economic
values of wetlands. It has been written predominantly for the
benefit of managers, planners and decisionmakers in government agencies in
developing countries, who are responsible for charting the
future of wetlands. The booklet defines wetlands and wetland
types, and gives an overview of the various values that
wetlands may have and the reasons why these values are often
disregarded. It provides guidelines on (...) read
more .....Co-management
of Natural Resources - La Gestion Participative des RessourcesNaturellesThis
document (92 pages), provides a comprehensive guide-for-action
of the use of collaborative management (CM) to help address
environmental and natural resource issues. It is designed to
assist facilitators and partners of co-management processes.
It provides guidelines for multi-stakeholder management of
natural resources and describes in detail relevant concepts,
methods and tools. The emphasis is on practical approaches and
advice, in line with the experience gained in field
(...)read
more .....Awakening
ParticipationThe
REC Public Participation Training Project has three primary
goals: to
increase the public's awareness of the benefits and value of
public participation in environmental decisionmaking; to
strengthen the capacity and skills of the public in formal and
nonformal methods/techniques of
public participation in environmental decisionmaking processes; to
encourage multi-sector cooperation and partnership in
environmental decisionmaking among
citizens, NGOs, local and national (...) read more
...

..
A
website dedicated to advancing the policy and practice in
capacity development in international
cooperationCapacity.org
is an initiative of the European Centre for Development Policy
Management with the aim to look at policy and practice of
capacity development within international development
cooperation. With a focus on both the "why" of capacity
development - fostering debate on policy questions
(...)read
more
...